Hard Drive Problem?
 

Well, I'm still having some computer problems and thought I'd get all of your advice.

After putting in a new motherboard (ASROCK K7V88) and new CPU (AMD Athlon XP 2100) my computer would start up and load windows just fine. But every time I would try to run any kind of program like AIM, Winamp, Ad-Aware, etc., the whole system would just shut off and restart itself. Every once and a while it would only start up in safe mode.

Since I was having trouble with the system in general and I had just done some major hardware changes I figured I might as well reinstall windows. So I go through the whole formatting process fine, but everytime it trys to laod windows to finish the install process it shuts down like it was doing before. Now I can't do anything because I can't get past the initial boot process before it shuts down.

Does this sound like a hard drive issue? It's not really making any strange noises, but I can't imagine what else could be wrong. About a month ago, SecretMethod70 put my hard drive in his computer and it seemed to be working fine, but I suppose some damage could have occured to it since then. :rolleyes:

So, any ideas would be great! And if it is the hard drive, what is a good hard drive to buy? Thanks!

Does it shut down or reboot? Overheating will cause it shut down. Do you have a Linux install disk? You could try that, if it works fine then its got to be something else. Maybe some drivers are confliting, what video card do you have in it?

To me it sounds like an overheating or Memory errors in your RAM. You cant get past the initial boot process but can you get into your bios? If so do you have a temperature monitor area in your bios? If you have an old hard drive try swapping it in and seeing if your system still behaves in the same way.

As to whats a good hard drive to buy, I have had problems with almost every major brand, so my best advice is whoever has the best warrenty, most manufactures have at least a 3 year warrenty, if they dont stay away.
Whats your current hard drive, they may have some diagnostic tools you can download to test it, if you post the make and model it I'll take a look around.

--HGClowns

Okay, take this for what it's worth...

A friend of mine, bought a new motherboard (an ASRock as well (K7VT4A)), processor and a big stick of ram. Couldn't get XP to load all the way (It would reboot right after the bootscreen went away) We tried re-installing XP and it would get to 99% and it would re-boot or give us a BSOD. We tested his RAM, his hard drive, his video card and nothing seemed to work. As a last resort we replaced his weak-ass power supply with a bigger one and suddenly it works.

I don't know if this is your problem, but it sounds similar. What was in the PC before? Does the new mobo/cpu draw a significantly more power?

I'd certainly do all that's been suggested. Swap in another drive, check the temp, test the memory, maybe check for any on-board settings/jumpers that are incorrect, all commendable solutions, but I'd check the PS as well. It just sounds so similar....

My gut feeling says weak/cheap power supply (easiest to diagnose), or dead motherboard. Most chipsets can handle spurious RAM errors these days without causing a system reboot, and if you just bought the CPU I doubt that's where the problem is. If your power supply isn't an Antec, I simply don't trust it. I didn't used to be that pessimistic until I was working for a company that bought 500 2P athlon workstations with "generic" 450W power supplies. Over the course of 1 month I replaced 473 of the power supplies with Antec Tru380 power supplies as the generics blew themselves sky-high. Haven't replaced an Antec since.

As for the motherboard, I haven't had any experience with "Asrock", so I don't know if it's a "cheap" motherboard or a quality one. I tend to stick with Abit and Asus for my motherboards...

In summary, try out a new power supply, just to see, and if it still gives you trouble I'd bet good money it's a bad motherboard.

All good suggestions here -- weak PSU, thermal shutdown, other hardware problem.

I suggest installing Linux in a separate partition or HD so that you can pinpoint whether or not your problem is Windows-related. And you get the added benefit of running Linux! Try Knoppix if you're new to Linux.

Thinking about it more, the power supply does seem the likely cause. Replacing it with as better one might fix it, and if not having a good power supply is the way to go. I've had more than one cheap power supply blow up, once takng out my mobo. :(

I just wanted to drop in real quick to say thank you so much! These suggestions are all awesome and I will get to it as soon as possible. Again, I really appreciate the input!! :icare: :) :icare: